To Brave the Frozen Heart
by greenhairedfae
Summary: Merida never felt anything for any of her suitors. But when she attends Elsa's coronation she realizes that they would make a perfect political match and decides to propose. But of course it is a bad idea to propose to a person that you've just met. Especially when they turn out to have magic powers. Especially when they're a girl. Rating may change.
1. Chapter 1

Today was going great day, Anna thought excitedly waking up. She remembered that today was to be her sister's coronation day, the day that the palace doors would open and for the first time in forever she would finally get meet actual real life people. It would be so totally strange and exciting. Anna just knew that today would be fantastic.

Elsewhere in the palace, Elsa had already been awake for quite some time, having tossed and turned all night. Elsa was a bundle of nerves and had been terrified for years about this day. Today she would have to remove her gloves to hold for the first time the symbols of her royal office. Today she had to open the doors to the public who had gathered to bear witness to the crowning of Arendelle's new queen, and she was petrified that she might let her powers show in front of everyone.

"Conceal, don't feel." She repeated to herself the mantra of her past thirteen years, ever since she discovered the danger of her powers. "Conceal, don't feel." She couldn't slip up in front of the trade delegates from other kingdoms. "Conceal, don't feel." She wished that she was allowed to keep her gloves on during the ceremony. They'd always helped her to feel safe and kept small amounts of frost from her hands contained besides. As the windows were opened to air out the normally dark and shuttered ballroom her discomfort grew. Letting all these people into the Castle Arendelle went against her every instinct. "Conceal, don't feel. Don't let them in." She reminded herself it was only for today and practiced picking up the ball and scepter, each time unsuccessfully coating them in ice.

Meanwhile, Merida was happily snoring inside the cabin of the ship that was transporting herself and her mother to Arendelle.

Elinor and Merida had been travelling around for several months. Tensions were rising between the clans as Merida grew older without marrying. The highland queen had spent two years bickering with her daughter before they'd came to the decision that Merida would make a political match between DunBroch and one of its neighboring kingdoms rather than marrying one of the highland lords' sons. She and her mother had been going to events like this coronation, meeting with possible suitors. Although Elinor had hoped that Merida would have made a match by now instead of ruining all possibility of marriage with boorish behavior, she clung on to the possibility that here in this sunny, prosperous, Scandinavian kingdom Merida might at least find someone of the nobility she would accept. Besides, with the great number of people grouping together for the large kingdom's coronation, chances were that Merida would have to find one of them not entirely disagreeable.

Elinor, ever the early riser, had been awake for several hours and was enjoying a quiet breakfast. It was in the fleeting peaceful moments like this, when she was preparing for her daughter's future, that she wished that her daughter hadn't inherited Fergus' willfulness. It did not serve well for a woman in this day and age to be so stubbornly ferocious. She knew that the longer Merida spent without wedding a proper mate the worse the political state of the highland nation would get. And Merida knew it too. But Merida didn't care. Or rather she put her freedom above everything, including the affairs of her kingdom. Elinor hoped that war hadn't already broken out between the clans. Fergus was rather clumsy with handling diplomatic relations and the clans had been itching for a fight since driving out the invading forces. If things weren't handled delicately the peace which they'd worked so hard to foster would fall apart.

Merida woke up as the ship neared its port. Arendelle was sunny and gorgeous, she'd like to be here on more unofficial business because it would be fun to explore. She felt a pang of longing for Angus but knew that he wouldn't have wanted to have been cramped up on the boat. Besides, Angus was getting on with age and probably didn't want to go gallivanting through the scenic mountainous terrain. He probably would just want to stay in a nice peaceful meadow and relax. Still, she missed her horse. He was a wonderful companion and great for a vent after her mother had been particularly adamant about a suitor.

Hans might have charmed her mother with his fancy manners but he was far too fussy and stuffy for Merida. Plus he called Angus a smelly old beast. She couldn't marry someone who didn't respect her best friend and dearest companion. Even if Angus did smell a bit like his stable. Still Merida reckoned that Hans probably didn't deserve what Hamish, Hubert, and Harris had done to him in exchange for deserts. Even if it was funny. And it was very funny.

As Merida stretched all of the cricks out from sleeping in the small cabin of the ship, Elinor ducked in to help her daughter get ready for meeting potential suitors.

Elsa breathed in and out, counting to ten in her head. "Conceal, don't feel. Don't let them in." It would only be for today then she could close herself away forever. The white haired crown princess steeled herself as she ordered the guards to open the gates.

Anna had been waiting at the gates, completely elated if a bit gassy from all of the sweets that she'd stuffed her face with earlier. (She refused to believe anything as delicious as chocolate could cause her harm.) Here was her chance to end her loneliness, her chance to find true love. She'd been bouncing around the castle for over an hour, unable to contain herself. As the gates opened she couldn't help but to run under the bakers who were bringing a gigantic cake in for the festivities. She pushed herself recklessly past the good citizens making their way into the castle. For the first time in forever danced around in the normally busy, currently vacated, for the present coronation of her sister as queen, open-air market just outside the castle walls.

Elsa was inside in one of the more secluded rooms of the castle, dreading having to go downstairs to greet the waiting people. But she was the queen and this was her royal duty to her populace.

Merida was happy to be off that boat. She'd hopped off it at the first chance at all their stops. Her mother cringed as she stretched loudly again, yawning in the crisp cool mountain air. She swaggered proudly down the pier, stretching out her legs properly. She really wanted to go riding through Arendelle. She made a mental note to borrow a horse and get away while her mother was trapped inside of a crowd at the first opportunity. Elinor, stately as ever waited to be let off onto the pier. Once a ramp was lowered, lifted her skirts and elegantly stepped down it. Merida rolled her eyes. Things took way too much time the way her mother wanted to do them. She took off toward the visible castle while Elinor stood grumpily on ceremony for the crew.

Arendelle had a nice rustic style in spite of its sharply hewn stone, paved streets and metal fixtures. Merida thought of home, and the rough bumpy stone that made up Castle DunBroch and the dirt trails and hoped that the nobility of Arendelle wasn't too snooty and pretentious because she really wanted to like it here. On the way to the castle she passed a burly young man that reminded her a bit of the young MacGuffin lad feed half a carrot to his moose thing and eat the other half. She definitely wanted to like it here.

Merida didn't really like the pomp of coronations, all indoors and stuffy. Besides the dress that her mum had picked for her was from Arendelle and was made of a sort of stiff itchy fabric. Furthermore, in Arendelle's Alsostyle it had corsetry, which was much too confining. She really didn't want to sit inside the cathedral for an hour watching people say things but it wasn't like she had a choice. Her mother would never forgive her for giving their host such a large insult.

Merida was very bored until she noticed the queen of Arendelle. The queen was covered from head to toe and wearing a heavy cloak to boot. In the middle of summer no less! But she didn't look sweaty she just looked extremely confined and sort of cute. Actually really cute. She just looked so small underneath all of her heavy clothing. Merida loved the way her chin was shaped and how her lip held still in spite of the nervousness that she was no doubt feeling about taking the throne to such a large and prosperous kingdom. She liked the gentle slope of her small shoulders and how still she held her chin up, proud and regal in spite of her short stature. She liked how the queen walked gently across the floor keeping her head level in a continuous sweep. She never understood what her mother wanted to see in her walk until now. A walk was just a walk, a way of traveling from place to place stretching out her legs. But when the little queen walked, she understood. When the little queen walked, she made her status irrefutable.

Elsa's hands started to tremble when the officiator of the ceremony prevented her from taking the ball and scepter with her gloved hands. 'Don't let them see,' Elsa thought.

As she noticed the queen's pale delicate hands Merida was stricken with a sudden urge to protect the little queen. She didn't understand why the queen wanted to wear them but those gloves were clearly important to her and she clearly felt more comfortable with them on. Why couldn't she wear them?

The queens hands started to frost up as she held the ball and scepter. She noticed how many unfamiliar faces were looking straight at her in the cathedral. It was all she could do to wait until they'd made her queen to grab her gloves and run out of the cathedral.

"Long live Queen Elsa."

"Long live the queen!"

It was done.

* * *

><p>Hello!<br>I'd really like to know what you think, if I should write more, etc. Thank you for reading.


	2. Chapter 2

Merida noticed the ball get a bit foggy before the queen hastily returned it to its pillow and stormed out of the church. Which was weird because it was the middle of summer and they looked like they had looked perfectly clean. She hoped that the fair faced monarch was okay.

As Merida walked up to the castle for the post-coronation festivities with her mother she realized that the queen, who no doubt was single as her sister occupied the post ordinarily reserved for consorts during the ceremony, would make a wondrous political match for the Scottish kingdom. Kingdom DunBroch had lovely portside access, and was materially rich, if a tad underdeveloped. Arendelle was extremely prosperous, well developed, and mercantile. It only made sense that they should arrange a political union of some sort. In spite of tradition, the match would fulfill all of her mother's qualifications for a proper suitor.

In the ballroom Merida's mother introduced her to several Scandinavian lords and princes from several kingdoms. Merida was supposed to have studied their houses before meeting with them but found she didn't care enough to memorize names of people she'd never met. She'd been amused by the older one who was obviously plotting to exploit Arendelle's wealth and danced around her like a crab. Ultimately the cake with a bust in it was far more interesting than most of the people the highland queen introduced. Merida kept her eyes peeled for the little queen.

And she was not disappointed.  
>The little queen was off to the side of the dance floor wishing she was someplace else. The queen was in fact taller than Merida but her slender form seemed shrunken into her heavy cloak, away from all the people. Merida still felt like the queen was small, in need of protection.<br>Elsa did not want to be here one bit. There were too many people for one thing and too many people wanting to talk to her for another. It was hard to suppress her feelings when there was so much to respond to. But it was pleasant enough she supposed, a nice excuse to eat cake and have musicians play for her. Or at least it would be if a certain fourth son of the king of the Southern Isles wasn't trying so hard to chat her up.  
>That was when she noticed a ferocious looking woman with what could only be described as a mane of red hair strutting towards her.<p>

"Can't ye see that y'aren't wanted?" Merida gestured angrily, scowling up at the blond prince.

"Pardon me, your highness." The prince took off quickly into the sea of people, embarrassed.

"Thank you for that." the queen murmured, pleased to be rid of a nuisance.

Noting the small upward curve of the queen's smile, the first sign of pleasure that Elsa had displayed all day, Merida was grew bold. She had to be forthright with the queen, none of this mamby pamby bumbling around, she deserved better than that. She grinned widely.  
>Elsa decided she liked the shorter woman's frank attitude.<p>

"I am Merida, of clan DunBroch, and I would like to ask for yer majesty's hand in marriage." Merida announced.

Elsa changed her mind about the Scot's attitude.

Elinor, who had just found Merida, raised her hand to cover her face. She'd hoped that Merida would find someone to marry on this trip but not like this. This was a disaster.


	3. Chapter 3

Merida had thought that her mother might have appreciated that she'd found herself a perfect match that she liked but that was not the case. Her mother had dragged her away from the ballroom to a vacant hall by her ear, like she was some sort of child.

"Merida, how could you?"

"I like her."

"But asking her to marry you?"

"I wanted fer her to know my intentions."

"She is a woman!"

"Mum! She's everything you want in a suitor-"

"Merida, you do know that these Arendellese are quite religious don't you? You were supposed to have learnt about their culture! Were you paying any attention?"

As a matter of fact, Merida hadn't. She elected to instead plan out her next romp through the forest. But Merida didn't have to explain that to Elinor.

"She is queen-"

"Of a nation that could easily overcome DunBroch militarily"

"All the more the reason to form an alliance! And weren't you the one to say that there is no firmer way to settle an alliance than marriage!"

"This is different." Elinor sputtered. "Ye could start a war!"

"You are not to pursue this Merida!" Elinor demanded.

At this Merida crossed her arms and looked away. There was no reasoning with her mum sometimes.

Anna couldn't believe her luck. Bumping into Hans' horse and almost dying by falling from a great height in a rowboat was the best thing that had happened to her in her entire life! She loved being with him. He was so different from Elsa and the servants, with him she could feel free to do whatever she wanted and act as crazy as she wanted. Elsa always hated her romping around but Hans wanted to romp around with her. And he was perfect. He was handsome and well-mannered but still so fun! He made her feel special. He caught her after she tripped. She wanted to spend the rest of her life with him and he wanted to spend the rest of his life with her. Today was the best day ever!

She wanted to tell Elsa straight away about Hans. After all, Elsa could hardly put her down for wanting to be happy after keeping her cooped up, all alone in that castle, with only a couple of servants who were too busy to spend time with her. And Elsa. But Elsa didn't count because she wouldn't ever spend time with Anna. They used to be inseparable but suddenly Elsa withdrew when they were children. Anna guessed that that was when she'd started to have that thing about dirt. She hated how Elsa hadn't left her room for weeks after their parents died. She'd thought that certainly they'd come together again after that but it was not to be. The king and queen of Arendelle's death only pushed Elsa further into her seclusion. Elsa didn't even attend their funeral.

She supposed that her parents would have ended the closed gates policy earlier. But Elsa, she'd closed herself off completely after their parents died. Foreign dignitaries and Arendelle's trade partners were no longer invited to the castle. Contact with the outside world had ceased. Letters came and letters were written, but no one entered the castle and no one left it. Anna supposed everyone grieved differently but thought that Elsa was a bit extreme. It hardly helped Arendelle to have its castle cut off from the rest of the world.

But nothing could ruin today! Today was fantastic and she was in love. And getting married! Well not today, they had to take a couple of days planning and getting everything together but still everything was moving so fast and it was too much to be true.

But it was true! And that was what made it so wonderful! She wanted today to last forever.

Elsa hadn't really had time to recover from the foreign woman's shocking proposal when she was dragged off by Queen Elinor. Soon after she was approached by some emissaries looking to negotiate taxation on imports. Elsa was welcomed the distraction. Their discussion of the tariffs placed on imported wool, whilst very demanding of concentration was not emotionally stimulating. She hadn't known how to react to the strange woman's request but here she was in her element, having been trained since birth to l

Anna supposed that Elsa could hardly say no to her proposal. The Southern Isles had been trying to negotiate an alliance with Arendelle for years. Although it was a bit fast, Elsa could hardly complain because she was the one insisting that the gates remain closed. And how could Anna expect find someone special if she never got to see anyone. She was so lucky to have found Hans today. She didn't know if the castle would ever be open to the public again.

As Anna waded through the crowded ballroom, she stepped on some toes. But she had great news and wanted to share it with her sister with haste.

"Elsa!"

The queen excused herself from the conversation about Arendelle's taxation policies.

Anna had tried to seem as formal as possible but it was a bit difficult. She was so excited. "I mean Queen" It sounded awkward to call her sister that. "It's me again."

"May I present Prince Hans of the Southern Isles" Anna announced in her royal voice.

Elsa, having experience with men of the Southern Isles understood that he had ample reason to squirm his way into a friendship or a courtship with her sister.

"Your majesty" Hans interjected.

"We would like" Anna and Hans both said at once. Anna stopped and smiled. Their mental synchronization was off the charts.

"Uh, Your blessing" Hans continued.

"Of" They giggled.

"Our marriage" Anna couldn't help but to chime in as Hans finally told Elsa.

"Marriage?" Anna's freckled arms were wrapped around Hans. Elsa was in a fog. For the second time today.

"Yes" Anna peeped out excitedly.

"I'm confused." Surely Anna hadn't meant this seriously. People don't just marry people they've never met before. She thought back to the scot's conviction with which she said her words.

"We haven't worked out all the details ourselves. We'll need a few days to plan the wedding"

This was all moving too fast. Anna was getting married to a redheaded man that she just met.

"Of course we'll have soup, roast, and iced cream." And she was planning out what to eat at their wedding.

"Can you move here?"

Elsa couldn't believe Anna hadn't consulted her about this.

"Absolutely!" Hans enthused.

"Here?" Things were moving far too fast. Elsa hadn't even agreed to the marriage. "Anna-"

"Oh, and we can invite all your brothers!"

Was Anna even aware how many princes the Southern Isles had? This was too much. Elsa had to intervene.

"Wait. Slow down. No one's brothers are staying here. No one's getting married."

Anna couldn't believe it.

"May I talk to you please? Alone?" Elsa was panicking. There were too many people for an argument.

Anna stepped next to Hans. He deserved an explanation too. "Whatever you have to say you can say to both of us."

"You can't marry a man you just met." Elsa said flatly. 'Or a woman either' some small voice in the recesses of her mind intoned.

"You can if it's true love." How could Elsa, after everything, not support her happiness?

"What would you know about true love?" Elsa intoned quietly hoping Anna would take the cue.

"More than you, all you know is how to shut people out." Anna did not take the cue.

Elsa was hurt. She shut Anna out for her own good. She didn't want to see her get hurt. It was the hardest thing she'd done and she'd done it out of love. Old wounds festered sore. Elsa pushed the feelings down.

"You asked for my blessing, my answer is no. Now excuse me." Elsa needed to be alone, to calm herself.

"Your majesty," Hans spoke as Elsa walked away "if I may ease your—"

"No, you may not and I think you should go." She didn't want any more proposals, any more chaos.

There were too many people. She needed her privacy. "The party is over, close the gates."

* * *

><p>Post Script.<p>

ieatwaffles, I have read trade negotiations. I loved it to bits!

anon, kapuis, that nice guest, Chestnut, Makakova, all the nice people, Thank you kindly. You guys are too nice.

that guest who is against gay people, you don't have to read the fic if you don't want to you know. Also your comment made my day. Thank you for being my first ever piece of hate mail.


	4. Chapter 4

Rapunzel and Eugene Fitz-Herbert of Corona had decided to honeymoon in Arendelle. It was their first big adventure away from her parents, her real parents.

That took some getting used to. Rapunzel had a lot to adjust for. The large amount of family and friends that she now had in Corona was the tip of the iceberg.

She'd thought that her adventure with Eugene had been gigantic but the world outside her tower was tremendously humongous and being the heir to a sovereign nation was a big responsibility. It helped that Rapunzel always seemed to find new friends wherever she went.

Although some people became her friends slower than others. The patrons of The Snuggly Duckling had become Rapunzel's friends far faster than her cousin Percival Augustus had. Percy seemed to take offense to how she'd suddenly come back from her tower and didn't think that she was a suitable future queen or Eugene a suitable queen consort. Eugene thought that Percival was a poof (which Rapunzel assumed had something to do with his puffy pants) and some other sort of bad word that Rapunzel didn't know the meaning of.

Sometimes Rapunzel wondered if Percival Augustus was right about her not being a fit ruler even though he had impractical taste in pants.

She wasn't raised with all of the fancy etiquette that a princess was supposed to have and her cousin laughed at her when she would mess up with forks but she didn't completely understand the necessity of additional silverware for each course in a meal nor in fact the need for additional courses not that she was complaining. She had tried so many new foods since being reinstated as princess. In between lessons she had the palace chef teach her how to cook her favorite recipes. She mostly avoided diplomatic incidents by being very very friendly and apologetic. Which apparently she wasn't supposed to do with foreign dignitaries because it made the state of Corona look weak. Rapunzel didn't quite get that jump in logic between nice and weak, but Eugene was trying to explain it to her and she was sure that at some point she would make a breakthrough.

Rapunzel was getting the hang of interacting diplomatically though. Enough so that she could be trusted as an emissary of Corona. Her parents had stressed that it was a large responsibility but Rapunzel wondered if it actually was. Her parents may have just wanted to make her feel like she could handle being queen. After all it was just a visit to meet her cousins. And all of her family, save Percival, had been very kind towards her. And she was grateful for it.

Eugene was looking forward to his and Blondie's first trip as a married couple. He had worried a bit when her parents made a fuss about responsibility and the like because he really wasn't cut out to be a diplomat and had no idea why Blondie (who wasn't so blond anymore) hadn't ditched him at some point for some floofy poof that would impress Percival. But Arendelle was on good terms with Corona, so it seemed unlikely that he'd get them into too much trouble.

He didn't get why Rapunzel was so worried about offending people. She was a born communicator and you couldn't help but to love her. More often than not when she would mess up with which bit of silverware to use it would put people at ease to tell her their life stories which Rapunzel would quickly dedicate to memory and bring up the next time she'd see them.

Her only issue was a lack of confidence in herself, which prevented the newly found princess from being able to hold her own in arguments. He could only suppose that came from that scary codependency thing she had going with Gothel. Percy the Poofmeister wasn't too helpful either.

The boat ride had been uneventful, although Rapunzel had quite enjoyed learning nautical terms and the slang of the sailors, which they'd thankfully lessened the severity of for the naive princess who had every intention of telling her parents about them when she got home. Eugene hoped she would stop worrying about pirates though. Apparently those were on Gothel's list of terrors that she'd use to keep Rapunzel in the tower.

Anyways the after party was a typical palace affair. Dancing, music, and a lot of pompous rich people standing around. It wasn't exactly Eugene's cup of tea. Of course Rapunzel made it all tolerable but royalty had too many for Eugene's tastes.

Anyways Rapunzel was introducing him to some duke of someplace when there was a crazy random happenstance.

They were just talking, when some family drama was going on between the crown princess and queen of Arendelle. Rapunzel of course was very concerned and Eugene had told her to ignore it as best she could, it wasn't polite to attract attention to people's personal problems.

Rapunzel was going to argue but then, a spray of ice spiked off the floor of the ballroom.

* * *

><p>So this chapter is significantly different from the others and I don't like it as much but I made it and I know that I shouldn't have waited for so long to post a new chapter but my family life is really awful and I was temporarily homeless (but living in my boyfriend's mom's house), and then I found out he had bought 5000 dollars worth of games on my debit card so now he's my ex, and now things are reasonably stable and I have an apartment that doesn't have internet but is nice enough and has a lot of outlets. I'm not really sorry for not posting. I've been busy.<p>

I'm not too torn up about the boyfriend thing to be totally honest. I had been looking for an excuse to break things off with him. I'm more hurt that he thought that it was ok to spend my savings on games because when we were dating we were close friends and he knew that I needed to have money in the bank because stuff like what happened were likely to happen.

Also by my family life is terrible I mean that my mom called my work requesting that I be fired and so my work put me on as an emergency staff member which is different from being fired but also I don't get to work so I don't get paid and now I need a new job. Also she moved into my house.

My personal life is awful.

Anyways, by the way, I am bi. I'm a girl. Stuff about me. It's really early in the morning where I am and I haven't slept too well for a really long time. I hope you guys will review this and let me know what you think. I want to fix what's wrong with this chapter that makes me dislike it.


	5. Chapter 5

"Honestly Merida, I don't know what ye were thinkin'." Elinor chided strolling up the widow's walk toward her daughter who had been hiding from her. "Did ye expect her to return that sentiment in kind? Ye barely know her and how did ye think she was going to react?" Elinor paced. "How will she react?"

"I just - " Merida hesitated trying to find the right words. -"wanted fer her to be clear of my intentions."

"Clear of your intentions?" Elinor struggled repeating the phrase and barked out a hysterical sounding laugh. "After all this searching, we've met so many people and courted so many fine young men, Scots too... " Elinor trailed off muttering, "Of course my daughter picks an Arendellese princess"

"She's a queen now Mum."

"All that means is that she could have you drawn and quartered in an instant! Merida, did you not consider what you were asking? Marriage is a very serious affair."

"Which has traditionally been decided by sport, instead of any reasonable measure in our country. Ye weren't takin it too seriously when ye were askin' me to marry Wee Dingwall."

"Why couldn't you have just followed tradition and picked a nice Scottish lord? Instead of causing an international incident?"

"Oh and those buffoons are just great diplomatically. Macintosh; won't stop showin' off his nonexistent muscles and Dingwall drools."

"MacGuffin was alright."

"I can't understand him and he speaks in me own native tongue."

There was a break in conversation as they both had been through this argument hundreds of times before over the past years. Neither one of them needed to look to know the hurt on the other's face.

"Ye had other options." Elinor sighed exhausted.

Merida turned to face her mother head on her voice stone serious. "None that I wanted to pursue."

Elinor looked down sadly at her daughter. All their years of searching she had just wanted for her daughter to be happy, but things weren't all simple and everything had its costs. She didn't want the price of her daughter's freedom to be her life.

Merida looked away, out at the hilly landscape of Arendelle.

"It's probably just as well she said no." Merida murmured "Fricken' ice queen didn't even smile a nip during her own coronation."

Elinor laughed.

Her daughter had requested the suit of a queen and her only concern was that the queen had rejected her suit, not the political ramifications of such a request. She treated the whole situation like a man would, like her father had during their courtship. Best to offer up the truth and be rejected than to be dishonest and safe with your feelings. Elinor remembered how little she had wanted her large boisterous husband, how her own mother had pressured her to accept his courtship, with the promises that he would make a good husband.

And Elinor had grown to love him and Fergus had made a good husband. Indeed, he'd made a great father. Most men spent little time with their children but he took great pleasure in teaching them all he knew whether she approved of the sharing of knowledge or not. He'd taught his sons to make shadow puppets of bears and his daughter to shoot, the fastest ways of killing men and deer. She did not regret their early marriage.

Elinor could see him clear as day in her daughter now as she stared scared but ferocious off into the distant night sky. She wished he were here now. He would know the right words to sooth their troubled daughter.

She worried about DunBroch and the future as Merida stared down, shivering with the night air. Elinor's thoughts drifted steadily into the dark silent wind.

"Mum, there's something you need to see." Merida interrupted.

And Elinor saw something she'd never seen before.

"Ice queen indeed."

_About last chapter, Percival is an OC that isn't really relevant other than to be someone that isn't immediately accepting of Rapunzel and trigger her worries about herself. He won't feature in this story. I partially based him off of Wiggins from Pocahontas._

_My life is doing ok. My ex-boyfriend's mom paid me back the money he stole. I'm not filing charges. _


	6. Chapter 6

It had been a shock to Anna when ice collided with the floor and sprayed up toward her. But something seemed familiar about it. It wasn't as much of a shock as you'd think.  
>She'd had to stop for a second when it had happened because, holy cow, ice is sticking up off the floor in a previously warm ballroom. But it had immediately made sense to her and seemed to put a lot of things to rest in her brain.<br>The gloves weren't worn out of a preoccupation with dirt but because of her magic powers. She was always so cold because of her magic powers.  
>She finally understood what Elsa had kept from her. The secret she kept with their father when they spoke alone together. She didn't understand why Elsa hadn't just told her about the ice powers. Maybe it wouldn't have been a good idea when she was younger, she wasn't too good at keeping secrets as a child. Of course she didn't really have any secrets now either. She wasn't ashamed of anything in her life and didn't feel the need to hide things. As for privacy, she wanted to share everything with everyone. She loved sharing things with people.<br>But she would have learned to keep a secret if she'd needed to.  
>If Elsa had wanted her to she'd have kept it a secret.<br>Anna needed to make things right between them explain she didn't care if her sister was a witch, sorceress, whatever now. She just wanted the closeness that they'd had as children back.  
>She'd stopped chasing Elsa at the pier, having expected to have cornered her. But Elsa ran across the water white hexagonal designed ice printed on the flattened water as she stepped across it.<br>Anna fell to the ground with the reality of it. Elsa had magical powers and didn't want to stick around to talk to her about them.  
>And the snow drifted down as Elsa ran silently into the night.<p>

The moonlight reflected white off the ice as Elsa ran across the lake, ice smooth under her feet. She was terrified and exhilarated. They all knew her secret now and it was horrible and wonderful at the same time. Her citizens and guests had run in fear of her but also she was herself. She felt the cold night air on her ungloved hand and it felt good. Unrestrained. Free.  
>She ran northward away from the valley villages towards the north mountain. Few and far between traveled its steep slopes, she wouldn't be much more of a danger to anyone in comparison to the trek up the north mountain.<br>She threw off her other glove. She didn't need it anymore. The crown too was tossed off into the drifts of snow playfully twisting through the air. She had gotten so caught up in avoiding danger, keeping to herself, her responsibilities that she had forgotten how to breathe. How to have fun. How to enjoy life and just be. She let her cape off in the wind and the struggle inside herself had flew off with it.  
>She pulled imagined things out of the snow: Olaf, the snow man of her youth and built a staircase to the sky like the staircase from home. She made a castle form around her in an elegant hexagonal design and in the newly made ballroom it occurred to her for the first time in a long time that all her layers were restrictive, she couldn't move and twist around like she wanted to and she remade her coronation gown in the most unrestrictive way she could, ice twisting around the fabric splitting the side for ease of movement and let her tightly wound hair down but pulled it off her face. She needed to feel the air, be one with the wind and sky. The new dress she'd made was daring, befitting of a courageous queen who had sacrificed herself for too long for other people.<br>This dress did not murmur apologies for existing, it invited Elsa's gaze to it and it occurred to her for the first time that the scot's proposal was not terribly politically motivated. Her breasts once tightly compressed under many layers now felt loose and exposed under thin layers of ice. For a second she thought about covering herself up more but then she saw her reflection and realized that she was all alone and that that was silly.  
>She laughed softly to herself, it was all so ridiculous. Here she was thinking about modesty of dress in the middle of a ballroom that no one would ever come to. She had built a castle all for herself on the side of the north mountain. And she realized how long it had been since she'd laughed harder and louder.<br>It echoed through her empty castle and Elsa smiled impishly aware of how peculiar this all was and cackled loudly at the empty room.

Rapunzel was fascinated. She was also concerned. And a little bit excited, but she wasn't about to share that with anyone. People probably wouldn't accept that one too well. General opinion about the current situation was that all this ice was a disaster and sorceresses were evil.  
>Rapunzel disagreed.<br>She'd read about magicians and witches before, it wasn't too surprising that other people with magic existed, regardless of what Eugene had said about magic being a far from common experience, she assumed that other magic users existed, otherwise what were the stories based on? And it made sense that not all of them were evil. In fact it made sense that most of them weren't.  
>Most people weren't bad. Gothel said that they were but Gothel was a cruel person and all of what she had told Rapunzel about the outside world had proven false. People were generally good and so witches would generally be good too Rapunzel thought. Although people treated witches badly and most of the literature suggested that they were bad Rapunzel knew well that magic wasn't inherently bad.<br>What she hadn't been expecting was the ice. She wondered about the effects that that had on local weather patterns, maybe she could conduct some tests once they'd found Elsa. Of course, that might be an if they find Elsa type thing. That was where the concern came in. She hadn't been expecting one of her cousins to be a magic user and the ice seemed a lot less friendly than the magical glowing hair. Ice was something that could really hurt people, especially if you slipped on it. Rapunzel had slipped quite a few times when learning to ice skate last winter. She pushed that memory out of her head to focus on the present situation.  
>It was snowing. A good amount too. And it was summer. People hadn't prepared for snow, Rapunzel and Eugene hadn't packed coats. She shivered in her thin summer dress. They'd be given coats soon enough but a lot of the people travelling into town for the coronation would have to pay out of pocket for coats and blankets. Capitalism was still not something that Rapunzel understood too well, but she knew that requests for things from people that weren't nobility needed to have money attached to them to go far. Her diplomacy instructor had talked to her about buying gifts so that people would like her more so that she could get them to agree to things that they wouldn't otherwise. It would be of benefit to Elsa if no one suffered too much because of the ice.<br>This would not be a disaster.  
>Rapunzel's honeymoon was not going to be a disaster.<br>"Eugene?"  
>"Yes?" Eugene shivered silently cursing his luck.<br>"We're gonna need a lot of blankets."  
>He looked quizzically at her. She knew that they would be provided for, they were staying in the castle which would be dressed and heated to the nines.<br>"There are a lot of people out here that are going to be very cold without our help." She explained in a sing-song-y voice that he knew was part of her way of staying brave and positive through tough times.  
>He smiled down at his lovely philanthropic wife. He'd spent some winters in the cold and would not wish that fate on anyone.<br>"Let's go get some blankets then."


	7. Chapter 7

The snow hadn't reached two inches before it became clear to everyone in Arendelle that it needed to stop.

Anna was scared and confused and everyone was looking to her. But she wasn't trained for this. Elsa had been tutored at great expense for many hours but Anna had never had much patience with her tutors and besides she wasn't going to ascend the throne, Elsa was.

Elsa had.

Elsa was queen of Arendelle.

Arendelle had lost its queen a second time within 3 years.

It was very clear to Anna that the kingdom needed its queen, who had run off across the bay. Of course there were proponents of the royal counsel that were advocating that her leaving counted as abdicating the throne, at least temporarily.

But Anna knew that she needed Elsa. She couldn't do this without Elsa.

Anna also knew that a lot of people right now meant Elsa harm.

She knew that she didn't know who she could trust. She knew she could not to let anyone hurt Elsa.

She needed to apologize to Elsa also for outing her, even though it was unintentional.

And they needed to talk. They hadn't really talked in 13 years and it was time that they did.

In order for that to happen she needed to be the one to find Elsa and she ought to be alone, crowds freaked Elsa out and besides she didn't want anyone shouting that Elsa should die to come along with her.

So she was going to go alone.

Anna needed to leave someone in charge of Arendelle while it was going through this crisis.

It needed to be a royal so that all the collected nobility would listen to them, besides Anna had heard some bad things about advisors taking over kingdoms as maniacal despots. There had been an incident in Agrabah with a sorcerer.

Elsa wasn't like that, but not everyone here knew that.

The next in line to the throne after Anna was her cousin Rapunzel and her husband Flynn Rider or maybe Eugene Fitzherbert, people weren't very clear about names and Rapunzel had spent until this past year locked away in a tower with no one but her brainwashing kidnapper for company. Anna didn't want her cousin's first big royal leadership experience to be taking over a nation in turmoil.

She didn't know if the small wide-eyed woman could handle it; Anna couldn't. At least not now, not without Elsa.

Anna didn't know the nobility well. They'd been shut out when the castle doors had closed so many years ago.

Any one she might have picked from Arendelle wouldn't be likely to give Elsa back her throne or abdicate in favor of Anna.

And then the thought hit her.

Hans.

The ever handsome Hans had been at Anna's side throughout the entirety of the crazy mess. And besides, she was going to get married to him in a couple of days anyways and then he'd be next in line to the throne anyways, maybe? She didn't know too much about how this sort of thing worked but that sounded about right. She got on her horse and announced before the crowd, which was arguing about what should be done to Elsa and Arendelle, that she was leaving Hans in charge in her absence.

She told Hans that she'd be back with Elsa soon, not to come with her.

He didn't ask to send anyone with her. Just, tightened his lip and nodded.

Anna felt that his understanding of the situation and nodded back.

They knew each other so well so quickly.

Hans smiled hopefully at her back as she left.

* * *

><p>Merida had been there when the visiting nobility was arguing about what should happen to the absentee queen. The duke of Wesselton was demanding that the ice sorceress be burnt at the stake for the crime of witchcraft. It shocked her that people treated that like it was a pertinent argument. The queen had not hurt anyone with the ice spikes that were still sticking up out of the ballroom. More moderate people were simply arguing that her running off counted as abdicating the throne and that they needed for Anna to ascend the throne quickly because Arendelle was in crisis. This too seemed shocking to Merida but Elinor whispered and explanation in her ear.<p>

"The Arendellese are quite religious, given her majesty's witchcraft there is extreme question placed on whether or not she is even fit to rule. Arendellese government dictates that in times of crisis for the kingdom as a whole monarchs decide what will happen and the nobility must bow to their king or queen. In the absence of such a ruler it is likely that the nobles, who have their own personal guards, will war against each other for control of Arendelle, throwing Arendelle into further chaos. As such, if Princess Anna saw fit to ascend the throne, she would be well within her means to do so."

Merida looked at Anna who was being boosted onto her horse.

The girl wasn't even wearing mittens. She was a mess and everyone was too busy arguing about what should happen to the ice queen and what Princess Anna should do that no one was looking out for her well being.

The freckled girl's face echoed her sister's and Merida was struck with how lucky she was to have her parents to look out for her. She and her mother didn't always see eye to eye but her mother never would let her take off in this sort of weather without mittens.

Elinor caught Merida's eye and shook her head.

Merida knew she needed to do something, anything. She couldn't stand by and do nothing.

Elinor glared at Merida knowing that her daughter was planning something.

"Don't let yourself get caught up in this, Merida. It's too dangerous." She whispered, knowing Merida wouldn't listen. Merida never listened.

Merida let her hair cover her face and smiled a wicked sort of grin. She had drunk from The Firefalls. Legends said that only the bravest of the ancient kings had done that.

Elinor knew what her daughter was planning and knew she could not stop her.

All through that night her eyes never left Merida.

Her daughter had grown into a stunning conversationalist, and she watched as Merida drew in Corona's princess and prince consort with the tale of Mordu the Demon-Bear King who had thrown DunBroch, before it had been called DunBroch, into chaos. She watched her daughter serve the hazelnut soup that Corona's princess had helped the kitchens make to the people left in the frosty night streets of Arendelle. She watched her daughter build friendships that would last a lifetime with the nobility and peasantry of Arendelle and Elinor had never been prouder of her daughter.

Elinor knew as she laid down to bed that Merida was planning on leaving that night.

She knew that as much as she wanted to she could not stop her.

And so when Merida crept out of their room, changed into long underwear and a riding dress that she had smuggled onto the boat from DunBroch along with the heaviest cloak she could find, Elinor stopped her and handed her her bow and a satchel with food in it.

Merida was shocked.

She had prepared a defense of her leaving that mostly consisted of, 'Mum she wasn't wearing mittens, her hands will fall off before she gets anywhere.'

But her mother knew. And what's more, the Bear Queen of DunBroch understood.

"I thought ye said princesses aren't supposed to carry weapons?" Merida teared up smiling up at the queen's shadowed face.

"Ye'll need it." Elinor replied terse and scared for her daughter.

Merida hugged her mother tight and for the first time in a long time they felt close again. For an instant they stood like that not wanting to let go.

"Be safe Merida." Elinor whispered, clutching her daughter close.

"I will Mum." Merida sniffed into her mother's shoulder, serious this time in the face of her mother's worries.

Elinor loosened her grip and stepped back slightly. Merida nodded, eye's still wet but determined. Nothing more needed to be said.

Elinor didn't let herself cry until Merida was completely out of sight.


	8. Chapter 8

Elsa stopped herself from cackling.

She didn't want to go mad but then she wondered if she was already mad.

She had been cackling by herself for a good deal longer than is normal. And she did have ice powers. They may very well cause madness, to be totally honest Elsa didn't know too much about them, just that she wasn't supposed to use them and that she needed to control them and suppress them wherever possible.

Although if she was mad there was a distinct possibility that she didn't have ice powers but only thought she had ice powers. But she wouldn't have been a danger to the rest of the world if she didn't have ice powers so her parents wouldn't have barricaded her away. Unless if she was mad and they were trying to keep it a secret.

If she was mad had she hurt Anna deliberately?

Does it count as deliberate if you aren't sane?

She certainly hoped not. But if she had hurt Anna intentionally then she had deserved the endless solitude of her room a hundred times over.

Still they wouldn't have left her as heir to the throne if she were mad would they have? There had been mad kings and queens before.

Then again they had died very young and it was likely that they didn't have everything planned out for the event of their inevitable demise before that trip.

That trip. She had been so scared. That night she had nightmares and her walls were coated in ice. She had dreamt of their ship crashing with the waves and it did. Was that her fault?

She hoped she hadn't killed her parents.

Anna didn't forgive her for not attending their funeral.

Elsa didn't feel she merited forgiveness.

They'd spoken more at the after party than they had in years.

But if she was mad it wasn't possible that she had killed their parents. And blaming their parents' deaths on themselves is something mad people would do Elsa thought. But then, she wasn't entirely certain.

If she was mad it was possible she'd just imagined the auburn haired Scot, that the ferocious woman was born out of some incestual desire for closeness with her remaining family, her sister. The queen shook her head. That seemed weird, even for someone who was cackling all alone.

She supposed cackling to be a typical hermetical habit, much suited to her new-found hermitage. Yes, cackling was probably better than wondering if she had gone mad.

Elsa tried cackling again but it seemed to have lost its spark.

She felt like crying but no tears came.

* * *

><p>As Merida was leaving the castle when she chanced upon a meeting with Prince Hans and several advisers in throne room.<p>

She allowed herself to peak into the room. After all, what was being discussed could invalidate her present course of action.

"I've assembled a rescue party for Princess Anna." Hans spoke from a position of authority atop the dais, elevating himself over the gathered nobility.

Merida found it strange that someone engaged to the princess still used her formal title in reference to her.

Hans was wearing a different suit coat than the one he'd worn to the ball and members of the rescue party were clearly standing behind him with Arendellese advisers on the other side of the room. He looked sharper somehow than he had before, when he had been courting her, more wired.

"Anna left you in charge, are you sure it's wise to go off into the cold—" A stout adviser in a sea green coat began.

"-She should be back by now if Queen Elsa were to be found." Hans interrupted.

Hans had gotten ruder since she'd known him. All the mesh of manners seemed shifted, testy.

"And are you sure you trust all the members of your party" It was at this that Merida noticed the crimson suited men behind Hans and recognized the color as that of Wesselton's guards. **"Prince Hans of the Southern Isles?"** The adviser accentuated.

Hans grimaced when the adviser said Prince, Merida was sure of it.

And all at once Merida remembered that Hans wasn't really interested in herself but her position. Hans wanted to be king.

Hans wants to be king.

But Elsa was in the way of that and surely he wasn't planning—

This was a secret nighttime meeting about whether or not to send soldiers.

She tightened her lips.

She needed to hurry up and get to Elsa before Hans did.

The queen was in danger.


	9. Chapter 9

Merida picked the black horse.

She wasn't exactly sure why she did. The mare seemed more cantankerous than the other white and sable horses in the stable-one of which seemed altogether too suspicious of her nighttime visit to the stables for an ordinary horse - that were happily napping and chewing at their cud when she opened the stable doors. The horse's hooves already unsettling the stable dust.

And she sniffed angrily with disdain at Merida as Merida removed her from her pen. She chewed her bit and Merida told herself that the great beast looked a bit like Angus but the truth was that she looked nothing like Angus and Merida knew that. She was much too skinny and anxious where Angus was grand, peaceable and steady. But she'd already decided that she liked the mare. She didn't know why she'd picked her but she had done so and she would stick to her decision.

Maybe it was because she didn't match the other palace horses, and probably wasn't a guard's horse and thus was unlikely to be taken out in the snowy weather. Merida knew that wasn't why she took the onerous mare. But it was a sensible reason to take the black horse. And that ought to count for something.

Merida never could claim logic to be a motivation for any of her actions before now and certainly she wasn't going to stop doing things on pure instinct now.

'Probably a white horse would have blended into the scenery better,' she thought to herself, urging the horse out of the stable as gently as she could, having tided over the suspicious

Probably a white horse would appeal better to a person who had flooded the landscape in snow.

Probably Merida oughtn't be thinking about that right now.

But it was too late to change her mind now.

For better or worse the scot had taken the coal black mare off into the night after the snow queen.

It occurred to Merida that she wasn't entirely certain which way the frigid ice queen had gone, beyond that it was past the frozen bay. She had only a few short hours to catch up to the princess in before the princess froze herself to bits, assuming that she hadn't already done as much.

She thought of the winds, how the air moves cold winds into hot stagnates in the summer, how good that feels, and reasoned that whichever way the frosty wind blew from was a good direction to look in for the source of the cold, the icy queen and thus her sister.

And the scot felt the prevailing winds were blowing her hair from the north like always.

She looked northward, in the direction of the wind, already knowing that part of the landscape. And saw a steep mountain peak. A gust of cooler wind took bit into her nose.

Merida groaned hoping her gut was right as she urged the mare deeper into the night. The Dellian princess would not be able to handle a trek like this on her own.

Anna realized her limitations. Or to be more specific, her horse did.

She had never spent as much time riding as she'd wanted to. There wasn't really much fun to be had within the palace walls and riding around the gardens in circles wasn't much fun for Anna or the horse. In what time she had spent riding horses, no horse- especially not a palace trained, orderly, well behaved one like the one she'd taken to go after Elsa- had ever bucked her from themselves.

Of course there's always a first and it always comes as a shock.

She had to give it to the horse, it had picked quite the time to do this, leaving Anna in the cold, all wet inside a snow pile, when Elsa had abandoned her to run all of Arendelle.

Anna had tried to continue forwards, although she wasn't entirely sure of whether or not she was going into the right direction, if Elsa had continued in a straight line, if she had gone in a straight line, things other than the cold weren't too clear right now.

She had been going through how to talk to Elsa, what to say, why had Elsa done this thing, how Anna could apologize, but the cold was swiftly smothering out all other thoughts.

Her shawl was no longer keeping the cold out but was keeping the snow in. She left it in the snow pile. The winds danced cooly on her exposed skin. She realized that probably wasn't too smart but she brushed the snow off herself and trekked forwards.

She knew her progress was slowed by the loss of her horse. She could deal with that.

But the cold, she could feel the snow shoving her back as she kept trying to plod forwards. It had invaded her every orifice and her snot had frozen solid in her nose. Her face felt all crackly and it hurt to move. She instinctively scrunched her nose and pushed forward. She'd be damned if she let her sister push her away again. The stinker of a horse wouldn't hold her back and the snow shouldn't either.

But her hands and feet had prickly numbness to them and her boots were filled with snow.

Her empathy for the horse grew as she felt less and less certain that she would make it to Elsa.

Most people have a warmth requirement, and Anna was no exception so when she saw the smoke she jolted towards it, not considering obstacles, only rejuvenating warmth that the source of it would provide.

She slid into the crick.

The cold had only grown as she'd ventured into the night. Anna's dress froze solid to her skin almost immediately upon exiting the water. The ice wasn't melting at the against her skin and Anna's joints ached from the cold. She had never felt like this, or maybe she had once and forgotten but the cold had never seemed so cruel. Anna could have cried if she weren't so sure that the tears would freeze to her cheeks.

Anna was almost there. She would not freeze to death here. She waddled forwards, avoiding the iciness of her skirt. She stopped to brush the sign off before entering. It was best to know what you were getting yourself into.

'Wandering Oaken's Trading Post' the snow slid off of the addendum sign 'and Sauna'. A sauna sounded fantastic right now.

When the sun rose Elsa smiled.

She had never been a morning person and she had never seen a sunrise before. The sunlight refracted off the ice refracting rainbows of blues and violets throughout her ice castle. She had never known just what she was capable of. What all was inside her, this wonderment was always inside of her, she had just needed to stop being so afraid.

She shouted words she wouldn't remember into the morning air, free as a bird she wouldn't let anyone take this away from her. She reentered her castle manic with ideas for additional details.

She couldn't dwell on the past anymore. She would live and love this life with all the vivid magic that she'd restrained before. Nothing would ever hold her back again.


End file.
